Free The Nipple (Campaign)

Free the Nipple action in Edinburgh

Woman is promoting Free the Nipple

Free the Nipple is a campaign that was launched in 2012 during preproduction of the film of the same name . The campaign highlights the general convention that men are allowed in public topless to appear while it is not permissible for women to do the same and that this difference would be unfair treatment of women. The campaign argues that it should be legal and culturally acceptable for women to show their nipples in public.

history

Filmmaker Lina Esco started this campaign in New York City in 2012 . She made a documentary about herself walking topless through the streets of New York. When the documentary was shot, she posted teaser clips with the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. In 2013, Facebook removed these clips from its website for violating the guidelines. In 2014, some celebrities like Miley Cyrus , Lena Dunham , Chelsea Handler , Rihanna and Chrissy Teigen posted photos on social media to show their support for Esco's initiative. Two protesters, Tiernan Hebron and UCSD student Anni Ma , were arrested on March 23, 2016 for causing public nuisance at the appearance of Senator Bernie Sanders . They appeared topless with tape over their nipples and slogans written on their chests. The Los Angeles police asked her to cover her breasts, and the two women refused and were arrested. They were held in prison for 25 hours but were not charged with any crime. After they were released, Ma filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department . Ma said her act was not indecent because mammary glands are not sex organs but rather are used to breastfeed children and said she believed that at no point did she reveal her "genitals" or "private body parts." Her attorney argued that she was never "naked" and that California's sexual harassment law only applies to genitals, not breasts. Her lawsuit also alleged that her constitutional rights had been violated, that she was subject to unlawful sex discrimination, and that state civil rights laws had been violated. In the past women have sometimes been arrested or charged with causing public scandal or indecent behavior for exposing their breasts in public. In New York State , the female topless movement was legalized around 1990. When a woman was arrested there in 2005 for performing topless in public, a court ruled in her favor and she was later awarded $ 29,000 in damages. In 2015, the campaign gained attention in Iceland after a teenage student activist posted a topless photo of herself and was harassed for it. In support of the student and the initiative, Björt Ólafsdóttir , a member of parliament, published a photo of himself out of solidarity.

Legal proceedings

In various court cases in the US, the question was whether women can show female breasts in public. Two examples are Erie v. Paps AM and Barnes v. Glen Theater. These included ordinances that contained restrictions on the legally permitted appearance of women in public, with a focus on the prohibition of public exposure of female breasts. A lawsuit was filed as Free the Nipple v. City of Fort Collins , which was an attempt to remove the provision in the Fort Collins Colorado Township Code prohibiting women from exposing their breasts. An injunction banning Fort Collins from enforcing the ban is currently in effect. There are a total of three states in the United States where showing a woman's breasts is illegal: Indiana , Tennessee, and Utah . Fourteen states and many other cities have laws that state ambiguity about how much a woman can show.

Social media

Each social media platform has its own policy and policy regarding nudity and nipple showing:

Facebook only allows photos of nipples if they are involved in breastfeeding and there is direct mouth-nipple contact.
The Instagram Nudity Policy states, “We know that people may want to share images of nudity in an artistic or creative way. However, for various reasons, the representation of nudity is not allowed on Instagram. This also applies to photos, videos, and some digitally created content that shows intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of bare buttocks. This also includes some photos showing women's nipples. However, photos showing scars after mastectomy or actively nursing mothers are allowed. Nudity in photos that depict paintings and sculptures is also okay. "
Pinterest allows artistic and non-sexualized nudity.
Youtube's guidelines allow nipples to be presented in terms of content, but do not allow sexually explicit material in content in which a woman's nipples are exposed.
With Google+ no nipples can be displayed, unless there are cartoons.
In Flickr , Twitter and Tumblr users can adjust how much nudity want to see them.

One tactic that activists have picked up is using the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. This tag has been used on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where it can be used to search the databases for posts with the same tag.

Some celebrities have expressed their support for the #FreeTheNipple movement on social media, including Miley Cyrus , Lena Dunham , Jennifer Aniston , Scout Willis , Rihanna , Cara Delevingne , Emily Ratajkowski , Naomi Campbell, and Willow Smith . Miley Cyrus said: "The nipple, what you can't show, is what everyone has. But the jug part that everybody doesn't, you're allowed to show underboob. I've never understood the way it works".

Web links

Commons : Free The Nipple - collection of images, videos and audio files

Website from freethenipple.com
Trailer for the film Free the nipple
Laura Patterson: Whiteness in contemporary feminist campaigns: Free the Nipple. , The University of Louisville's International Repository, 5/2016; (PDF file)
Brenna Helppie-Schmieder: The Constitution and Societal Norms: A Modern Case For Female Breast Equality ; DePaul Journal of Woman, Gender and the Law, DePaul University, 2015, Volume 5, Issue 1 (PDF file)

Individual evidence

↑ Jamie peck: The Boob Rebellion: Ladies Ditch Tops for the Free the Nipple Movement , at observer.com

↑ Chloe Tejada: Miley Cyrus Supports 'Free The Nipple' With Topless Photo , at huffingtonpost.ca

↑ Lena Dunham supports Free the Nipple campaign - with covered nipples , at bbc.co.uk

↑ Free The Nipple Campaign: A breast bearing fight for equality , at goldengateexpress.org

↑ Maeve Keirans: Rihanna's reason for freeing her nipple is more practical than political. Sometimes a bra just has to go, Y'know?

↑ Victoria Dawson Hoff: Chrissy Teigen's Nipple Is Coming for You, Instagram . "She's" not pleased. And by "she," we mean the nipple .; at elle.com

↑ Individual evidence :

Michael Baggs: 'Free the Nipple' campaigner arrested at Comic Con shares sexist abuse online - BBC Newsbeat . July 28, 2016.
Bruce BY Lee: Students Protest Nudity Laws at Free the Nipple Event . May 21, 2015.
Students Protest Nudity Laws at Free the Nipple Event .
Visible Nipples: Topless Women Are Still 'Not Asking For It' .
Alumnus Anni Ma: From Fear to Freedom - THE TRITON . May 10, 2016.
free the nipple - ucsd .
UCSD Protests Nudity Laws With Free The Nipple Event .
Fraternity Pledge Solicits Topless Pictures from Female Student .
UC San Diego Students Go Topless to Free the Nipple .
Meet Anni Ma Who is #FreeingTheNipple For Feminism, Equality and Social Justice! . Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
Dozens go topless at UCSD to 'Free the Nipple' - 10News.com KGTV ABC10 San Diego . April 13, 2016.
Balestra Entertainment: Anni Ma: Free The Nipple . May 13, 2015.
VIDEO: Topless women arrested outside Bernie Sanders rally . March 24, 2016.
Loudlabs News: Two Female Topless Bernie Sanders Supporters Arrested / Los Angeles * partial political nudity * . March 26, 2016.

↑ Anni Ma: #FreeTheNipple Arrest outside of San Diego Comic Con . July 26, 2016.

↑ Citations :
- Anni Ma v. Los Angeles Police Department - Free the Nipple lawsuit - Fourteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution - Damages . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2